Something I’ve never seen talked about is the foreshadowing of Al’s words at Trisha’s grave early on in the series.
When the Elric brothers are sitting at the grave, Al says “I’m cold. I’m hungry. Let’s go home” Right after this, Ed brings up that they should attempt to bring their mom back. At first what Al says seems like a normal thing a little boy would say but when you think about how each thing he mentions is affected later on his statement holds much more weight.
As it turns out, because of the transmutation, Al can’t feel anything (rain, cold, etc) and can’t eat (doesn’t get hungry), and because the brothers burn down their house, they both can’t return home.
On the topic of deaths in FMA (so, major spoiler tag right now for the FMA:B anime/manga) there’s one that’s just so well-constructed, so well-executed, and I’ve never seen anyone bring this up:
The Death of Wrath, Fuhrer King Bradley
It was Bradley who ordered and signed the extermination campaign in Ishval. And he did so unflinchingly. Partway through the war, the High Priest of Ishval offers himself up to Bradley in an attempt to end the war–one leader turning himself over to the other.
And Bradley, Bradley scoffs. He laughs at the notion that any one human life can be worth more than any other. He states that this priest’s life does not equal the tens of thousands of Ishvalans.
They curse him out. They tell him God will punish him. And Bradley invites it
He dares God to strike him down! He dares God’s Wrath to find him, and end him. But of course, nothing happens. The war continues. The Ishvalans die.
Then, we have Scar, who’s seeking vengeance for his murdered people. He does it in God’s name. He targets State Alchemists, because they are blasphemers. They distort things from the form God gave
them. They create, when creation is
the domain of God alone.
Al attempts to call Scar out on this hypocrisy later when
they battle in Central. Scar claims he’s working a loophole though. His arm
only destroys. He’s not encroaching
on God’s domain. He does not create.
Fast forward many many chapters. Scar is the final person to battle Bradley. And he finds
himself losing at first, even with Bradley as injured as he is. Then Scar pulls
out his trump card, gains the upperhand on Bradley, gains the advantage.
He’s tattooed his brother’s other design on his left arm. He’s
embraced the creation arm. Against
his beliefs, against his morals, against his creed, Scar has become one of the
blasphemers. He’s encroached on God’s
domain, because the magnitude of failure outweighed the sin of creating.
Bradley mocks him for this. He claims Scar must have finally
realized God is fake. That He’s a construction of humans, and the war has
finally broken Scar of his faith. If Bradley were right, Arakawa would probably
have him win this fight. He doesn’t, though. Scar beats him.
Scar, finally,
kills him. And he does it by embracing creation.
After countless attempts, after the train explosion, after Buccaneer’s death, after Fu’s death, Bradley remained alive. It was Scar, in the end, who got to kill him, and he succeeds in the face of Bradley claiming he’s surrendered his faith. So no, it’s not that Scar’s given up his faith.
Far from it.
By embracing creation, Scar has, symbolically, BECOME the
God of Ishval.
He creates. He destroys. He is nameless, yet acts in the name of Ishvala. He is Wrath. And it’s not just that “Wrath was killed by a wrathful man.”
Scar is the Wrath of Ishvala.
Bradley is killed by
the God of Ishval.
Bradley invoked the Wrath
of Ishvala, and he dies by it.
God did find Bradley, in the end. He was late on the invite, but He answered. Oh god, did He answer.
A thought in my head, which I am getting out by dropping it into the abyss of tumblr…
If you’re a fan of the Fullmetal Alchemist manga/Brotherhood, you’ve probably seen people analyzing the deaths of the homunculi and the ironies therein before, whether in full essay format or in super simplified lists. Gluttony is eaten by an ally/brother homunculus, Greed finds peace and satisfaction in self-sacrifice for the sake of the friends he always wanted and actually had in the end, Envy commits suicide after being called out on his jealousy of humans despite his outspoken derision of them, etc. etc.
I recently saw one of these simplified lists elsewhere online and one of the points this person put up bothered me. Well, two, actually, but the one about Pride is something I’d want to get into separately if at all.
This is about Lust’s death, and Mustang’s part in it. This is about the idea – held by some fans, but not all, I’m certain – that it was ironic because she was killed by a womanizer.
This is based on a misconception. I want to pick at it a little bit, for the sake of my own brain if nothing else. I’m sure others have made this analysis before. I’m going to do it over myself anyway. So, here we go:
Mustang was not, in actuality, a womanizer, or anything similar. He just made sure he appeared that way for his own reasons. For one thing, it made him seem less of a threat to senior officers as he climbed the ranks. A young officer with obvious laser focus on higher and higher seats, on more and more power, on getting into positions of command further up the chain and giving all he had to get there? That’s a concern. But a young officer with an almost lackadaisical attitude about him, one who, yes, does his job and all and even generally seems to do it well, but who primarily seems to have flirting and dating and general fooling around on the mind whenever he can spare a thought? Not such a big deal. Sure, he’s still getting promotions despite his relative youth, but it’s not like he’s gunning for them, right?
For another, it masks his information network, his alchemical notes, and the off-the-record missions he gives his closest and most trusted subordinates. Those dates he goes on, almost every time with a different girl? Totally just dates. He’s a young playboy officer. Everybody knows it. It doesn’t even bear thinking about.
Except…no. Not dates. Not girlfriends or romantic or sexual interests. Those are his adoptive sisters masquerading as the interest of the day, and those are information trading meetings masquerading as fun, easygoing, inconsequential nights out on the town.
His alchemy notes, encrypted as a harmless little black datebook. This is entirely in keeping with his persona. A cookbook written by a scientific researcher with no further explanation or apparent reason honestly stands out more. But Mustang’s datebook? Who’s going to think twice about it? For that matter, who’s going to want to sit and try to decipher whatever’s on the surface of that just on the assumption that there’s more to it?
And those missions. Everybody who knows of Mustang’s office habits knows that when Lt. Hawkeye is out on leave, Mustang takes it as an excuse to slack off and fool around on the job. Without her watchful, strict, no-nonsense eye on him, he feels free to call up his favorite ladies and pass the time in flirty chitchat. What an idle fool he is, unable to discipline himself and focus on anything other than pretty women and petty charms when left to his own devices, right?
Only on the surface, really. The readers and watchers of the manga and Brotherhood know better. We got to see “Elizabeth” on the other end of the line. We caught the double meanings of their conversations after that was revealed. But to an outsider, who doesn’t already know what’s up? Clearly Mustang’s up to his womanizing ways again, and there’s nothing more to it.
So that’s Mustang and womanizing. Now let’s bring it around to Lust and the lead-up to her incineration. Let’s look at Mustang’s motivations to crisp her down to ash and bones.
First, there’s her part, however small, in Hughes’ death. Mustang’s been on the hunt for his friend’s killer since it happened of course, and while Lust wasn’t the one, she pretty much admitted in their confrontation that she was at least involved. She said it was too bad she couldn’t finish him off herself. That’s the first thing that set him off, even before attempting incinerations.
Second, she nearly killed Havoc, one of Mustang’s subordinates. She definitely paralyzed him, as we discovered later, but there was certainly intent to kill. That drove him to try to rip the stone from her very chest in an attempt to save Havoc’s life. She also attempted to kill Mustang after this, and, most cruelly of all perhaps, left him to slowly bleed out while watching Havoc do the same.
And finally, when Mustang caught up with her, she was about to kill Hawkeye.
Vengeance and protection, for the sake of his friends and loved ones. That’s what drove Mustang to go as far as he did. That’s why he reduced her to ash over and over and over again, until her apparent immortality ran out and she faded away forever.
Lust wasn’t killed by a womanizer. She was killed by someone who simply wore the mask of a womanizer.
Her death wasn’t ironic because she was killed out of lust, or even by a man who lusted.
It was ironic because she was killed by a man who loved.
IF SHE HAD WANTED TO SHOOT SHE WOULD HAVE DONE IT RIGHT AWAY. If she’d seriously not had any second thoughts, Scar would not have had time to make a dramatic speech, the fight wouldn’t have restarted, SHE WOULD NOT HAVE HESITATED.
but she was. She couldn’t bring herself to do it.
And Ed was worried about Winry. Not morals. Not Scar. Not his feelings. He says it right out to Riza “It was scary to see Winry in that much rage and pain. Suddenly the gun seemed like a horrible thing to me”.
If Winry had shot Scar, Ed wouldn’t have like *freaked out from the trauma of seeing the girl he had thought was innocent do what he could not* as I’ve seen suggested- for fuck’s sake, no. He would have pretty much jumped over Scar’s body to rush to Winry’s side to see if SHE was okay SHE WOULD HAVE DONE SOMETHING THAT KINDA GOES AGAINST WHO SHE IS OUT OF PAIN GRIEF AND HATRED and that would have been extremely traumatic- and Winry’s feelings are seriously all Ed cares about in this situation. All he is concerned about is Winry’s well being. because he fucking loves her and knows who she is better than anyone else on the planet (well maybe NOT her grandmother but WHATEVER I’M!!!)
This is not Ed making the decision that killing is wrong FOR Winry. He’s reassuring her that she is RIGHT. That she couldn’t kill and that is okay because she is this amazing wonderful person who has these skills that save people and bring life into the world, and THAT’S WHO SHE IS and he knows that because he is the greatest beneficiary of that, because he’s been by her side his entire life and he watches her and appreciates and marvels and thinks about her all the time even if he can’t show it as much as he should because he is a dumb goober.
This is a situation where a girl was put in the position where she wanted to do something that wasn’t in her, something she wouldn’t have been able to face and this is her love interest knowing that, wanting to be by her side, wanting to help her realize she is amazing and it’s okay that she didn’t do that and here’s why you’re amazing.
Scar wasn’t going after Winry. Ed was just trying to sheild Winry from further pain, pain he had inadvertantly caused- stupidly (as Al pointed out) but he was only thinking of Winry, the fact that seeing her like this scared him because HE KNOWS AND LOVES HER.
Winry has been an emotional crutch for Ed so many times- she’s taken on his pain, she’s literally gotten him back on his feet- now it’s his turn to be her emotional support, to assure her of who she is, to support her, to let her cry on his shoulder FOR HERSELF and not him- to feel pain on her account for once instead of the other way around. And Ed does this for her. He is her emotional support, he is the one to talk about what she means to him as a hero- the roles are reversed, and they should be, because a relationship requires both people supporting each other emotionally.
I mean seriously, why the fuck do you think Ed respects life so much? These principals didn’t pop out of nowhere. He respects it because he grew up entirely surrounded by women who nurture lives and save lives and honor life- WINRY WAS ONE OF THEM, there’s also his mom and Pinako! The Rockbells! They TAUGHT him these things! And so when he sees one of the women who taught him the value of life holding a gun, he knows it’s a sign she’s seriously in pain and shit is wrong and he needs to be by her side.
Winry Rockbell is a rockstar and it’s okay that she can’t cap a dude in the head and walk away feeling nothing because what she does and who she is is so much more valuable and stronger than that, and Ed knows this and supports this and he wants to be there for her
hat’s it that’s the scene if u don’t get it i have no time.
something i love about fma is how the personification of lust is this sexy busty lady, so you expect her to be actually horny all the time as her namesake would imply, but that’s not the case. yes, she’s lustful, but it’s a totally different kind of lust, it’s bloodlust.
and it makes sense. why would the dwarf in the flask have any actual lust or desire to have sex in any way? he lacks that, but he still has human emotions and goals, as we see through his other 6 sins. he had bloodlust, it’s pretty obvious from how he acted before the fall of xerxes too.
lust is also an object of lust and uses this to her advantage, but this is a bit more of an example of irony. you also get a lot of innuendo with her, but in fma, lust never actually… lusted. she was never horny. but she was cruel, she left mustang to bleed to death and watch havoc die, she was excited to kill meas, she was pleased with herself when she told riza that roy was dead, she enjoyed killing 48. her sin is bloodlust.
when she died at the hands of mustang she didnt exactly leave off on a horny note, she said “i love how cold and focused your eyes are. i look forward to the day when those eyes will be wide with agony. it’s coming.”
which just shows how far her bloodlust goes, she wants to see him suffer. it’s also really good foreshadowing to mustang’s eventual blinding, she must’ve known he was a potential sacrifice.
winry meets rose and rose talks about how great edward is?? winry agrees and accepts any help rose can give her and listens to her story. zero jealousy, they both think the other is v strong and independent.
sig and alex meet?? they embrace each other’s strength and rely on each other to defeat a common enemy. AND they flex on each other and accept that they’re both v strong men.
izumi saves olivier’s life and protects her?? olivier, for once, is not upset at being helped, and they both respect that they each have different beliefs, and don’t judge the other for their differences.
i fucking love this series, these characters are so fucking good
bullshit central 